Samurai Spirit
by Gothic Lust
Summary: Kag/Katsu;Inu/Samurai7 When Katsu is coldly rejected by the water priestess Kirara, he leaves the Samurai 7 group to help other farming villages plagued by the Nobuseri. Now it is Katsu's turn to lead a village to safety, & maybe find someone to love him
1. The Mysterious, Rain Drenched Samurai

**Samurai Spirit**

**By: Gothic Lust**

**Inuyasha/Samurai 7 Crossover**

_**Kagome Higurashi/Katsushiro Okamoto**_

_**PG-13 or T for: Violence, Gore, Language and Sexual Content**_

**Disclaimer**: I don't own InuYasha or Samurai 7; they belong to their respectful owners.

**Summary**: When Katsu is coldly rejected by the water priestess Kirara, he leaves the Samurai Seven group to help other farming villages plagued by the Nobuseri. A few years have passed and Katsu has grown much stronger. He has gained the fighting skills of Kambei and Kyuzo doubled and is just as mysterious. He meets a young priestess by the name of Kagome Higurashi. Her village has been plagued by the Nobuseri for years, but they were too weak or poor to do anything about it. Katsu trains the village to defend themselves against the bandits, but a war has now broken out with Kagome's village as the main target.

Regretfully Katsu realizes that he will need to return to Kanna village and recruit the aid of his former allies. What will they say? How will Kirara react when she learns that the once young, naïve and unskilled Katsushiro has grown into a skilled handsome and quite mysterious young samurai? How will the others react when they learn his abilities have far surpassed what they would have expected? And what would Kirara do when she learns that the young priestess traveling with him has fallen in love with the dark green-haired man and he returns the feelings?

**Authors** **Note**: Be aware that this does not go exactly according to the anime Samurai 7. I made several changes since I have not seen the entire work as a whole, I have missed episodes and what not… so don't be too shocked when something happens out of sequence or was not placed in at all.

Also I have not gotten all the characters attitudes and personalities down pat so beware there will most likely be OOC for many of the characters.

And there will be no romance between Kirara and Kambei. In the anime Kambei rejected Kirara, and Kirara in return rejected Katsushiro, which I believe would have been a great match for her. Anyway this FANFICTION is going to be Kagome from the anime/manga series InuYasha paired with Katsushiro from Samurai 7.

Also take note that some of the characters that may have originally died in Samurai 7, may not die in my fanfiction. So please be aware of that.

**Please take note that I might not update this fanfiction for some time. It's an idea that I wanted to place here so that no one will steal it off my bio page. **

**Chapter 1**

**The Mysterious, Rain Drenched Samurai**

"_**The flower of flowers is the Sakura – Cherry Blossom. The Samurai is the man among men." – Japanese Proverb**_

The moon hung high in the sky above the path where a lone young woman walked. She knew not why she journeyed down this path. She recognized it clearly as the sole dirt road that lead outside her village boundaries and into the territory of the Nobuseri, but even that realization did not have her turn and run back to the safety of the farming village she grew up in. Her feet continued to lead her on, farther and farther into the darkness of the woods. She had resigned herself to her fate. Should anything come to pass, she knew it was the wish of the gods; she was after all a priestess and is bound by duty to follow their will.

Her light now hidden behind the canopy of the trees, she began to fear for herself. Though she resigned herself to this, it did not what so ever mean that she was unafraid. The large machine samurai that pillaged her village for rice and women each and every few days scared her. She had heard of the poor farming village of Kanna that had hired seven samurai and were able to defeat the Nobuseri that attacked them. This brought a small sliver of hope to her and her village. But that was years ago, and the Nobuseri still plundered and pillaged. Edo's women were still abducted, their rice taken and their lives hanging by threads.

She could do nothing to stop it. The one time she tried, her leg had been broken and her pride beaten down. Now she felt lost. The gods, it seemed, had deserted their small village to their fate. Regardless, she continued to pray to them, in hopes that they would return and drive the oppressors that were the Nobuseri away from them. But still, her soul felt helplessly lost. The men of her village lost their strength each and every day, the women feared for themselves and their virtue and the children were plagued with night terrors. Fear gripped them so tightly that it was suffocating, and she didn't know how to quell that fear.

The village held nothing of value other than the land they slaved and lived on and the rice they grew. But the land held little value now that it was terrorized by the Nobuseri and their rice was taken during every harvest. The few bundles they were able to salvage were hidden for the terrible times that she knew were to come.

She stepped from the tree line to the cliff that surrounded her village. It was a long drop to the bottom. To her left was an old wooden bridge that nobody had ever crossed in years. No repairs had been made to it since there was no need to reach the other side. Like the Village of Kanna, the Village of Edo was situated on an outcropping of land with a Cliffside that plunged many miles down. The only connection to the world that they had was that one rickety old wooden bridge that had not been repaired in years.

It was in this location that her feet had her stop. She felt the need to wait, to not cross the bridge as she was thinking of doing just seconds ago. She knew that sitting was a bad idea to do should she get caught by the Nobuseri outside the parameters of her village, even though this land was part of the village as well. She sighed and waited. An hour passed before any change happened. From the dark shadows across the bridge was the figure of someone and the creak the old bridge made as it swung from side to side signified that someone was indeed foolhardy enough to cross it.

The bridge swung even more violently as the winds began to pick up. Thunder roared and dark clouds that appeared out of nowhere tore open and let loose a storm of icy rain and lightning. She felt like running into the relative shelter the trees posed, but her feet held her still in the rain and wind.

Lightning stuck the cavern between the two outcroppings of land that was connected by the old wooden bridge, but thunder was not the only sound that followed. The clang of metal striking against one another could be heard much clearer than any crash of thunder. Through the sheets of grey rain she could barely make out the figures of a Nobuseri spy and someone else fighting. For some reason she was prompted to run to the figure and aid however she could. She did as her gut told her, no matter how wrong or stupid she felt it was, and ran towards the bridge. Gathering her courage, she passed the two polls that held the bridge to land and entered what may be her doom.

"Go back, it's not safe here!" The voice of a man sprang forth from the darkness, urging her to turn around, but something told her not to, so she stupidly kept her ground and ran blindly forward.

She gave an awkward battle cry, gathered her holy powers into her palm, ducked the blades swinging above her and unleashed her own attack upon the metal samurai bandit. The Nobuseri spy gave a metallic yell before crashing upon the bridge, its sword slicing the ropes that held the bridge stable. She gave a startled scream as she began to fall to one side. A strong arm wrapped around her slender waist halting her descent into what would surly have been a very long fall to her death.

"You foolish girl, do you know what you've done." She could not see his face since hers was buried into the folds of his shirt. He gave a sigh and commanded her to hold tight to him as he sheathed his sword.

The wooden bridge gave a groan and simultaneously several things happened at once. The two looked up to the rope that was the only thing holding them up to notice it was peeling away at itself, cursed their luck and the man gave her a final command. "What ever you do, don't let go of me." That was something she was not planning on doing, letting go of him would mean her certain death. Was this the reason she was to come out here, to be the cause of his death? She would have laughed at it if the situation were not so dire.

His grip on her tightened as the last few moments before the rope snapped ticked down. "I suggest you pray to whatever god you worship now; your god may take pity on us both and save our lives." She gave a small giggle before securing her hold around his neck.

The rope snapped with a loud sound of defeat and she screamed as they were suspended in the air for a moment before falling with the bridge. The man she clung to gave a grunt as his hold on the rope tightened, his other hand loosened upon her for a moment to secure his sword in his left fist. "I hope you've been praying." He said as they neared the side of the cliff where she previously came from. When they were nearly seconds from hitting the side, he released his hold on the rope and they both free fell.

She screamed and clung to him tighter. He gripped his sword as tightly as he could and impaled it into the Cliffside. Their decent began to slow to a near stop. When the bottom was within sight he waited till it was safe to drop before letting go of his sword and cradling the woman in his arms to shield her as much as he could from the impact.

When the dust settled around them she noticed the man still held her to him. She slowly tried to make her way out of his grip, but her sudden movement caused him to groan. She stopped her movements only remembering just now what he had done for her. He could have been injured at any point from when she met him to where he took the brutal impact of their fall.

"Are you injured great samurai?" She asked him. His answer was a groan. He raised himself shakily to his elbows, then hissed in pain and cradled his left shoulder and bicep with his right.

"So you are injured. I'm so sorry; I know it was foolish of me to meddle into your affairs but…" She silenced when he raised himself again from the mud, this time with only the use of his right hand. She backed off him, giving him the space he needed to raise himself to a seated position.

"Yes," he groaned, "It was foolish of you." He sighed when he finally attained his goal of sitting on his rear and looked her straight into the eye. She noticed then how handsome the man really was. He was young, maybe a year or two older than herself with dark green hair cut unevenly; short in the back but almost an inch past his shoulders in either side of his face with bangs to cover his dark emerald green eyes that nearly rivaled the color of his hair.

She pushed her curled raven black tresses from her face, trying to ignore the penetrating stare that was no doubt sharpened from years of fighting and killing. It was that or stare at the handsome man and not listen to his words. He did have a point though, even if it was the will of her god to interfere with the battle up on the bridge, she knew that it was not really her place to step into a battle such as that. What could she possible have been thinking?

"We should get out of this rain soon. There's a cave not too far from here." He said as he tried to lift himself to his feet. He stumbled to the ground as he lost his footing in the slippery mud.

"Here let me help, it's the least I could do for all that you've done for me." She wrapped his good arm around her shoulders and provided support for him to get himself off the ground. When he was finally standing, she noticed the cave he was talking about not too far from them. Together they slowly made it to their shelter.

Once inside, she lay him down on one of the sides of the stone walls and did a turnabout, scanning the area for anything that may have previously inhabited their dwellings or for perhaps some firewood. Luckily, her gods were smiling on them for there was firewood in the corner. It seemed one of the farmers used to come out here when the fishing was good. But since the river had dried out there was no need for its use.

She grabbed several logs and hauled them over to where they would be situating for the night. She arranged them as best she could and grabbed two stick and began to rub one of them against the other. Her work was tiresome, but it was more aggravating to know that the samurai was watching her, no doubt judging her on her lack of survival skills; she couldn't even build a fire.

"What's your name?" His question broke their silence and momentarily startled her, the sticks she had been previously trying to coax into creating a spark dropped from her hands to clatter on the floor.

"Oh, um, my name is Kagome, Kagome Higurashi." She gave a nervous laugh. It was silly of her not to realize that they never introduced themselves. "I'm the priestess of Edo Village, and you mysterious samurai, what would your name be?"

He only smirked, lifting himself from where he sat to grab the forgotten sticks where she had left them by her feet. "My name is Katsushiro Okamoto."

"Well Katsu, it's nice to meet you." She said, extending her hand to him so he could shake it and smiled. "Hope you don't mind if I call you Katsu?"

He smiled then and took her hand in his. "Not at all Kagome-dono, not at all."

**I hope that you like this idea. I haven't seen any Kagome/Katsushiro fanfictions, I've seen fanfictions that are Inuyasha/Samurai 7 crossovers, but none that are officially Kagome/Katsushiro. I wanted to create one of that pairing where Katsu didn't seem like a child.**

**Please review and let me know what you think. If you've found any Kagome/Katsushiro fanfictions please let me know. **


	2. Out of the Canyon

**Samurai Spirit**

**By: Gothic Lust**

**InuYasha/Samurai 7 Crossover**

_**Kagome Higurashi/Katsushiro Okamoto**_

_**PG-13 or T for: Violence, Gore, Language and Sexual Content**_

**Disclaimer**: I don't own InuYasha or Samurai 7; they belong to their respectful owners.

**Summary**: When Katsu is coldly rejected by the water priestess Kirara, he leaves the Samurai Seven group to help other farming villages plagued by the Nobuseri. A few years have passed and Katsu has grown much stronger. He has gained the fighting skills of Kambei and Kyuzo doubled and is just as mysterious. He meets a young priestess by the name of Kagome Higurashi. Her village has been plagued by the Nobuseri for years, but they were too weak or poor to do anything about it. Katsu trains the village to defend themselves against the bandits, but a war has now broken out with Kagome's village as the main target.

Regretfully Katsu realizes that he will need to return to Kanna village and recruit the aid of his former allies. What will they say? How will Kirara react when she learns that the once young, naïve and unskilled Katsushiro has grown into a skilled handsome and quite mysterious young samurai? How will the others react when they learn his abilities have far surpassed what they would have expected? And what would Kirara do when she learns that the young priestess traveling with him has fallen in love with the dark green-haired man and he returns the feelings?

**Authors** **Note**: **REVIEW REPLIES AT THE BOTTOM: **Be aware that this does not go exactly according to the anime Samurai 7. I made several changes since I have not seen the entire work as a whole, I have missed episodes and what not… so don't be too shocked when something happens out of sequence or was not placed in at all.

Also I have not gotten all the characters attitudes and personalities down pat so beware there will most likely be OOC for many of the characters.

And there will be no romance between Kirara and Kambei. In the anime Kambei rejected Kirara, and Kirara in return rejected Katsushiro, which I believe would have been a great match for her. Anyway this FANFICTION is going to be Kagome from the anime/manga series InuYasha paired with Katsushiro from Samurai 7.

Also take note that some of the characters that may have originally died in Samurai 7, may not die in my fanfiction. So please be aware of that.

**Last time: **

"Go back, it's not safe here!" The voice of a man sprang forth from the darkness, urging her to turn around, but something told her not to, so she stupidly kept her ground and ran blindly forward.

She gave an awkward battle cry, gathered her holy powers into her palm, ducked the blades swinging above her and unleashed her own attack upon the metal samurai bandit. The Nobuseri spy gave a metallic yell before crashing upon the bridge, its sword slicing the ropes that held the bridge stable. She gave a startled scream as she began to fall to one side. A strong arm wrapped around her slender waist halting her descent into what would surly have been a very long fall to her death.

"You foolish girl, do you know what you've done." She could not see his face since hers was buried into the folds of his shirt. He gave a sigh and commanded her to hold tight to him as he sheathed his sword.

The wooden bridge gave a groan and simultaneously several things happened at once. The two looked up to the rope that was the only thing holding them up to notice it was peeling away at itself, cursed their luck and the man gave her a final command. "What ever you do, don't let go of me." That was something she was not planning on doing, letting go of him would mean her certain death. Was this the reason she was to come out here, to be the cause of his death? She would have laughed at it if the situation were not so dire.

His grip on her tightened as the last few moments before the rope snapped ticked down. "I suggest you pray to whatever god you worship now; your god may take pity on us both and save our lives." She gave a small giggle before securing her hold around his neck.

The rope snapped with a loud sound of defeat and she screamed as they were suspended in the air for a moment before falling with the bridge. The man she clung to gave a grunt as his hold on the rope tightened, his other hand loosened upon her for a moment to secure his sword in his left fist. "I hope you've been praying." He said as they neared the side of the cliff where she previously came from. When they were nearly seconds from hitting the side, he released his hold on the rope and they both free fell.

**--**

"What's your name?" His question broke their silence and momentarily startled her, the sticks she had been previously trying to coax into creating a spark dropped from her hands to clatter on the floor.

"Oh, um, my name is Kagome, Kagome Higurashi." She gave a nervous laugh. It was silly of her not to realize that they never introduced themselves. "I'm the priestess of Edo Village, and you mysterious samurai, what would your name be?"

He only smirked, lifting himself from where he sat to grab the forgotten sticks where she had left them by her feet. "My name is Katsushiro Okamoto."

"Well Katsu, it's nice to meet you." She said, extending her hand to him so he could shake it and smiled. "Hope you don't mind if I call you Katsu?"

He smiled then and took her hand in his. "Not at all Kagome-dono, not at all."

**Chapter 2**

**Out of the Canyon**

"**_Stumbling seven times but recovering eight"– Japanese Proverb_**

When morning greeted them, both awoke wishing it never came. They were both sore from the fall, and Katsushiro's injuries were slow to heal. His left arm from his shoulder to just about his wrist was wrapped in several ripped pieces of Kagome's blue skirt and her white jacket. Katsu had faintly laughed when he noticed what his priestess companion wore, and when she questioned him to share the humorous though, he just simply stated, "An old acquaintance of mine was a water priestess, and by some luck, you both dress similarly." She didn't quite understand the joke, but never the less left him to his musings after she wrapped his bruised ribs with his own torn jacket and settled down for a long sleepless night.

She had been correct; she gained little sleep last night, and it seemed that neither did her samurai friend. Every time she tried to shift positions, it seemed that the same darn rock shifted under her and poked her back every time, following her movements, even as she scooted a few feet from her previous spot. Her cave companion never said a word but threw the remains of his torn jacket towards her. She thanked him soundlessly as she couldn't form the courage to raise her voice to thank him properly. She then adjusted the tattered remains of deep grey cotton into a rather thin pillow and stuffed it under her back. The night from there on out went rather well for her, except for whenever she turned positions to find the rock once again a pain. The thin cotton pillow did well to mask the rock, but nothing to banish it from under her form.

But for all the time that she spent awake, she new the samurai spent just as much, if not more in the same state. She would even venture to guess that he didn't sleep at all. From what she could tell from her limited medical training (she had not finished mastering her healing abilities yet, though she was rather good at the basic non-magic healing) and the apparent red color of his eyes and the small twitch of his foot every now and again—he had not slept a wink. When she inquired about it, he bushed it off with a wave of his hand and slowly with the use of his good arm, lifted himself from the dirt floor to his feet, dusting himself off with the back of his hand. Without a word he left through the entrance of the cave's mouth, leaving her to stomp out any remaining hot coals from their dead fire. She ran after him once she knew that there would be no sudden forest fires to burn down their meager fields of rice, and found him staring at the cliff side wall, his sword embedded into the face of it—out of reach.

"How do you plan to get it out?" she asked, a small hand pressed against his injured arm. "Surely you won't try to scale the wall, not with your arm injured as it is."

"I'll do whatever it takes to get my sword back. It's rather precious to me and worth more than any amount of gold in the emperors vaults." He replied, eyes still trained on the rock face before them.

"Don't tell me that you're considering it!" She nearly yelled into his ear as he walked away and began to test the jutted rocks he deemed good enough to climb with. "This is insane. You're going to tear the muscle even more at this rate."

Kagome rushed to him, trying as best she could to stop him from climbing the steep cliff face. She grabbed hold of the back of his shirt, bunching the cloth tight in her small fists and gave a hearty tug, though it did little good. He turned, however, to face her, an eyebrow cocked up and his eyes narrowed. He was annoyed, she could tell, but that didn't mean she was going to allow an injured man to scale something so steep and high up with a torn bicep.

"If you're so adamant about the darn sword then we can always come back with a few of the village men and retrieve it then once we've gained a ladder."

"I will in no way leave it here for it to rust or for someone to steal. If you want to return to your village then do so, you do not need me to guide you there."

"Why you arrogant—" She closed her fists tight at her sides, forcing herself to refrain from adding another injury to his growing list. "Fine, I'll retrieve it for you." She marched over to the cliffs edge next to him, pushing his larger hand off the stone he was about to use to climb up. "And I, in no way, need your help to return to my village. I just happen to think that you need better medical care than I could provide." She pulled herself up, her sandaled feet perched together on a rather small rock and she stretched for her next purchase.

"I'll retrieve my sword. It's rather dangerous for me, let alone a woman such as you." He placed a hand on her hips, ready to help her down when a rather strong kick pushed him from her. As she tried to move him away from her so she could continue to climb, her rather meager footing fell short as the shift in her weight and the force of her lean to the left made her rather unbalanced. Her sandaled foot slipped just as she clutched the rock for her second climb, but the added weight to one arm proved too great, and with a loud shriek, she tumbled to the floor.

The samurai's strong arm grasped her around the waist just as her right hand fully slipped from the rock and gently set her back on her feet. He left his arm there waiting for her to regain her equilibrium, but the tight hold on her shirt proved her point—there was no way he could climb that cliff.

"And this is what I meant when I said it was dangerous." He bit back once he released her. He released a long breathe, nearly hissing like a cat as he tried not to show his pain.

"And your obvious pain is what I meant when I said you're too injured to climb." She hissed back.

Kagome turned once again to the cliff face and was about to climb again when the samurai's large hand stopped her by placing it over her own.

"If you're going to tell me to stop then you've got another thing—"

"I wasn't going to tell you to stop. I can see now that you're rather stubborn to the point that rationalizing is pointless. If you're going to climb then fine, go ahead, but you're going to have to listen to me, because another stupid stunt like that and you're dead."

She looked him straight in the eye, trying to see if any of his word were false. His piercing emerald eyes, though narrowed in his frustration, held no deception. He was allowing her to do this—not that she needed his permission of course.

"Right-O. So where do I start?"

--

"Not that left, you're other left!"

"I am going left!" Kagome yelled out as she reached to the rock she previously tried for in vain. Her arm was not long enough. She pulled it back and the shift in her weight caused her to hiss as the rocks beneath her bare feet dug in, stinging when she tried to release the pressure by lifting them every so often.

"Stop lifting your feet or it'll get worse." The samurai called from below her.

She turned to glare at him but decided against doing so again when she nearly lost hold of the cliff face. "You better not be looking up my skirt, pervert."

"Why would I look up your skirt?!" He yelled back, his words thick with his anger at her claim.

"I don't know, you're a guy. It's a guy's nature to look when they obviously can't touch."

"Woman, stop prattling and move to the next rock on your left with your left foot."

"No way, that's too far! I'll have better luck using my arms. Besides, my feet hurt."

"If I am correct, you're the one who refused to have me bandage them with the spare cloth."

His voice echoed slightly off the rock face, ringing in her head as if to mock her. True, he had told her to wrap her feet to protect them against the rough texture of the rocks. She refused stubbornly, believing whole-heartedly that the cloth should be used for his bleeding wound rather then her feet. She would have rather gone up the cliff face with her sandals on her feet, but he refused to allow her up until she took them off—something about her feet better molding to the shape of the rock if there were no obstructions like her woven sandals. How she wished she'd listened to him now.

"I don't care, you need those bandages more than I do." Kagome shouted back at him, reaching out yet again with her left hand to a stone near her. When her fingers finally found a perfect grip, she lifted her left foot and stretched for the rock that he was leading her too. So what if she took an extra step, if it made her feel safe, she'd take as many of them as she needed.

When she finally fully transferred to her new position, she took a look around for the damn sword she was up there for. It lay just out of reach above her, the blade shining in the late-morning sun.

"Don't even try to reach for it; it's too far from you. Use your right foot to propel yourself up from the rock at your knee. You should be able to grasp it then."

Kagome decided to try, but when she couldn't get a good footing on the rock outcropping, she stopped. Her feet hurt too much, she could feel the blood pooling beneath her within the crevices between her feet and the rock. She didn't want to move anymore. Her fingers were cramping and her toes were stiff.

She growled as she tried to stretch for the blasted sword's pommel, brushing the woven grip of the traditional sword with her fingertips. She decided to stretch up on her toes and reached for it once again.

"Kagome-dono, what are you doing!? Use your right leg to get up one more step, don't stretch for it!"

His warning came too late, for as soon as she gained a strong grasp on the sword's handle, the rocks below her feet gave way. She screamed, gripping the sword with both hands as it stayed embedded into the rock wall.

"Kagome-done, don't move!" She heard him say. She looked down to find where he was, only to notice how high she truly was. It didn't look so high up from level ground.

"Katsu-sama! Get me down from here, please!" Kagome cried out as she swung her legs to find some sort of hold for her bodyweight.

"Don't swing like that, you'll pry the sword loose!" Katsu called out from somewhere below her.

"Oh Kami-sama!" She cried out as she made one final stretch for a rock not too far behind her. When her toes touched the rock surface, she sighed with relief. There was a violent crack from where the sword was impaled within the rock, the handle shook before it went loose within its hold.

"Kagome-done!" Kagome screamed as she pitched forward, the sword pulled free as she continued down. Somewhere between the drop and the ground she was flipping face first, then suddenly she was on her back. There was a sudden crash as she landed within the arms of the samurai, toppling him backward.

The sword flew from her hands and clattered somewhere to their right. She groaned but didn't bother to lift herself from her savior's chest.

"That hurt." She muttered as she peeled her cheek from his shoulder, rubbing her temple as she did so.

"Hurt who? You, or the one who took the brunt of the impact?" The samurai coughed from under her, his hands wound under her back and knees.

"Oh, Katsu-sama! Are you alright?" She asked as she scrambled off of him. "That's the third time you save me from falling."

"And it continues to prove to me how much you are prone to accidents and attracted to trouble." He groaned through his teeth as he lifted himself as best he could.

"Yes, well…" Kagome began to try and explain this one phenomenon that surrounded her.

"What ever you plan to say, save it. I'm not in the mood for words." He commented in return as he stood to retrieve his sword.

--

The sun was beginning to set behind the fluffy pink tinged clouds that settled low on the horizon. They had made much progress up a set of carved stone steps from a jutting side of the cliff near the northern end. Their trek however was slow. The two were both injured, Kagome's feet hindering them more than the samurai's wounded arm and bruised ribs.

As they searched for a way to scale the cliff, having already tried the tattered remains of the bridge (a part of their day best left to the imagination, as Kagome would prefer not to tell the tale to anyone) they happened across the samurai's bag, one that was lost quickly during the fight.

With a fresh round of bandages and splitting his meager ration of travel food (that which was not destroyed by the fall or the rain) they set off with higher spirits to search for a way out from the canyon.

They had crested yet another winding step, the stairs they took seeming like rolling hills along the face of rock rather than a simple laddered pattern. These steps took no accordion shape, but rather snaked across, looping up and rolled again. They were roughly half way up the cliff side having climbed most of their day.

"How much more of this is there?" Kagome moaned as she took a seat on the dirt covered stone steps, a bit of the side chipping from the sudden addition of weight.

"We should be at the top by mid-night the latest." The samurai commented, shielding his eyes with his hand to look up to determine how much longer their trek would take. "Maybe less should we hurry and not stop for rest."

"My feet hurt too much to keep going any farther." Kagome watched as Katsu un-shouldered his bag, opening it for a fresh roll of bandages. "You sure do have a lot of those don't you."

"If truth be told, I'm not the best samurai. I'm still training, and so I injure myself a great deal of the time." Katsu admitted, keeping his eyes on her injured feet.

"Aren't samurai always training? I thought there was not such a thing as perfection?" Kagome watched as his strong fingers worked on her left foot, removing the bandages and rewrapping it carefully.

"Samurai try as hard as they do, train as much as they do to protect themselves and others from ill fate, at least, that's my take on it."

"You're a hopeless romantic aren't you?" Kagome laughed, poking Katsu's good shoulder as he unwrapped her soiled bandages, tossing them to the side where they were subsequently picked up by a stray breeze.

"Am I really?" He questioned her, resting her right foot on his thigh as he wound the fresh cloth across the bottom of her foot. "Your wound is healing nicely, though when we reach the village you should have it looked at." He expected no answer from her on the 'hopeless romantic' part.

"Like you're one to comment!" She hissed in pain when he brushed against the underside of her foot, causing her wound disturbance. "My injured feet are nothing compared to that torn bicep and bruised ribs. Is it difficult to breathe?"

"A little, more at times when the weight of my bag rests against it." He replied as he rubbed his strained shoulders, hissing as it pulled his injured arm. Kagome swatted his hands, nearly threatening to tie his arm to his body so he couldn't use it.

"Would you like me to carry it for you?" Kagome offered, reaching for the pack before it was pulled out of her reach and swung onto the man's good shoulder.

"I can carry my own things, don't you worry. Adding any more weight to your feet is not a good idea at any rate."

Kagome looked down at her newly wrapped feet. Everything from the ball of her foot to her ankle was wrapped in pristine white bandages. Her toes, though cut up, were unbound as she requested of him the first time he wrapped them. At that time there was yet another argument about the bandage shortage, at least this time she won with little sacrifice.

She slid her sandals back in place, tying the knot at her ankles to secure it to her feet before accepting the outstretched hand before her. They began to climb again, at times pressing against the wall when the path grew too narrow to stand side by side, or to even safely walk.

True to Katsushiro's word, they arrived sometime around mid-night, the full moon hanging above them to light a path. They took a quick break after Kagome assured him that her village was not more than a half-hour's walk from where they stood, then quickly gathered themselves and ventured into the forest.

"This area is not so well traveled, since we're far from the crossing, there is no reason for any of the villagers to come out this far into this forest." Kagome spoke as she tried to make small talk.

"And why do they avoid it, there must be some sort of food source for them here—mushrooms maybe, or wild boar?" Katsushiro watched as she hung her head down, staring at the ground as they continued forward.

"This forest is haunted." Kagome pulled her eyes from the ground to look forward, their path winding between trees and bushes. "Two lovers where brutally murdered here during the war in cold blood."

"The recent war between the merchants and the samurai?"

"No, an older one."

"How old?

"Old enough to have it pass as myth or legend, and become a night time story to tell children."

"Interesting, I'm looking forward to hear this story."

"I guess it'll have to wait"

"And why's that?"

"We're here." Kagome said, motioning to the village past the rice paddies. The villagers were running towards them, their torches held high in the air as the called to their priestess. "Welcome to the Village of Edo great samurai."

--

**Review Replies: **

**Anime Punk Kitty**: Yay, first reviewer! Their relationship is going to be a bit slow, and on the rocks at first, but it will progress nicely (I hope). Thank you so much for reviewing.

**YamiNoRei: **I know what you mean. Every time I try to look for something new and fresh, there never seems to be any creative pairings. As much as I like to rehash other older pairing ideas, I know that there is a need for change. I'm not the only one to do this crossover, but I think I'm the only one to attempt this pairing, at least stated so blatantly.

**sexy-jess: **Thanks, I tried to make a strong impression on the first chapter. I hope that it worked.

**DeathNoteMaker: **Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll tackle this one myself. You are however free to input any ideas for the future course of the chapters and plot into your reviews. I'll read them and consider them carefully. I won't guarantee that I'll add them, but at least I know what you are looking for as a reader.

**Pochacoo Princess: **Thanks, I hope that this chapter is just as interesting to you.

**WhiteDemoness11: **What a wonderful thing to say! I've been trying to get Kagome's character down pat for a long time now. If you notice from my other stories, she's a bit shaky but decent enough. I hope that this time around I've nailed her form. Right now she seems a bit mellowed, but soon she'll be picking up in her personality. I had to write her that way because of how she grew up—farmers from the samurai seven world are mellow and try as hard as possible not to stand out. Their fiery spirit is what Kirara (from the samurai seven anime) and Kagome have in common, and I plan to make them crash into one another... (Input evil smile)

**IcedLilith: **I hope then that the following chapters will live up to your expectations and continue to intrigue you as you have been with my first chapter. Thank you so much for reviewing.

**Natsumi Tsuchi-Ookami: **I understand that Kagome seems quiet and rather mellow, but give her a break, it's late at night so she's got to be really sleepy. If not then dazed and confused from rushing stupidly into a sword fight and falling down a steep cliff clinging to an incredibly handsome stranger in the rain. Maybe this chapter she'll seem a bit more spit-fired.

As for your question; No, she won't tell him. Even though she isn't ashamed of being religious or led by the gods, she still won't divulge that, its kind-of a need-to-know basis where the conversation in question is between her and god. He doesn't need to know and frankly he really doesn't care. What ever reason she had to run in between his sword and that of the Nobuseri's is going to be judged as rather stupid and a naïve thought. Yes, Katsu still has issues—he'll face them sooner or later (more evil smiling).

**Kagome Lady of Darkness: **I'm really, really happy that you love it! I'm sorry that I haven't updated as soon as I wanted to but some things just can't be rushed. I hope this chapter will give me a similar response from you. Enjoy!

**Nine reviews, that's not so bad. I wasn't expecting this to come up with some high numbers as the normal pairings such as Kagome/Sesshoumaru or Kagome/Kurama turn out. This is awesome thought. I wasn't even expecting nine. Hell I was expecting somewhere between 3 and 5 (yea, not a very wide range). **

**I'm glad that you all are enjoying this. I'll try to update as frequently as possible, alternating between Love's True Light and this one. **


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